Not knowing is going to cost you several of our SNO Distinguished Sites badges, or at least delay your attempt to earn them. In asking there to be captions and credits on all images and graphics — original and outsourced — we’re not just asking you to fill space. We want you completing real photo captions.

The photo displayed at the top of this email is an example of doing everything right.

What’s right about it?

The subjects of the photo are identified by name and grade.

The caption is written in active voice. Phoebe, Evie and Emma are rehearsing the song. The song is not being rehearsed by Phoebe, Evie and Emma.

Along the same lines as the last point, there’s an action happening in the photo that’s being described in the caption.

It’s clear in what setting the action is happening (“during tech week”) and even why (“for the fall musical”).

The photographer is credited. Nice pic, Emily Ziessman, of St. Louis Park High School!

Taking the caption a step further, there’s added context for a reader who may just be looking toward the caption for information. That reader now knows, “Opening night for ‘9 to 5 the Musical’ is Nov. 9 at 7 p.m., with more performances to follow next week.”

That’s a full photo caption and credit.

Writing full captions and credits is part of how you prove you care about the way a story looks online. Paying attention to those details influences how your reader thinks of your publication.

Now, what is NOT a caption?

No caption is not a caption. Read that a second time, if you have to.

A caption is not just a list of names. “Phoebe, Evie and Emma.” is not a caption.

A caption is more than a statement about a photo. “Rehearsal for the musical” or, worse, “Rehearsal photo,” is not a caption.

A caption is not just a photo credit, but it DOES include one. “Photo by Emily Ziessman” is not a caption.

The same rules apply to original art, graphics and outsourced photos.

In those instances when art, graphics, album covers and other borrowed materials don’t portray an action happening, how do you write a caption?

A summary sentence or one that provides context works best. Examples include:

Maybe you have a photo of a painting. A summation of the corresponding story, such as “Students submitted work for Saturday’s community art show, where Phoebe McKinney won first prize,” works really well.

Maybe your photo is the movie poster for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Context such as “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ opens at Random Local Theater on Friday” is great to have.

Each of these examples, and any that are similar, need a photo credit, too. What studio produced “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Whose painting is it?

Now that you know, stress that your staff always writes full captions and credits on all images. Then, at least one requirement that shows up on several Distinguished Sites badges shouldn’t be such a problem any more.

Late last week, we bought our photo galleries new clothes and new toys. Did you notice? The display and function of them got an upgrade. Here’s what changed:

When viewing in full screen, we reformatted the space to allow for a larger area where your photos can really pop. The big changes in this view, however, are in how your readers will interact with the gallery from now on…

We got rid of the old left/right arrows in the top corner and replaced them with the new carousel arrows that display on hover on the left and right edges of the screen

We incorporated a clickable thumbnail row of images that can be placed above or below the primary display area — a different way for readers to engage

A cool effect: When the reader is done with (or tired of) the gallery, they can get out of the full-screen view by scrolling down on their mouse or trackpad

You can format slideshow options — like using a dark or light color scheme, picking a highlight color and location for the thumbnails — on your SNO Design Options page, under “Story Page Extras.” There, you’ll also have an option to pick between Overlay and Inline gallery displays.

Inline galleries allow the reader to engage with them without going full screen…

The new carousel arrows will hover over the photos in inline, allowing the reader to move between images without going full screen; whereas, in the old days, readers had to click a button on the photo before they could start interacting in full screen

In the Design Options, there’s an option to activate auto scrolling, so as soon as the reader gets to the story page, the carousel is queued to start moving

The reader can still take the gallery full screen at any time and won’t lose their place

There are also more functions that ever for a working slideshow on the homepage, using, as always, the SNO Photo Gallery Widget…

We’ve made it interactive without clicking to go full screen, same as inline galleries

There are three main options in the widget for functionality — Slideshow, Slideshow with Thumbnails, and Thumbnails — while you can also setup auto-scrolling settings

The “Thumbnails” option displays the photos as small thumbnails (a carryover feature) that can be clicked and enlarge to full screen. The difference is that the thumbnail sizes are automatically configured based on the size of the widget area you’re putting it in

You can find our new SNO help site article about these changes, right here.

]]>Stories you can localize and deadlines to meet: this week on Fresh Powderhttps://customers.snosites.com/stories-you-can-localize-and-deadlines-to-meet-this-week-on-fresh-powder/
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 16:59:45 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1728Localize this

Maybe your brain works this way, too: You click on a couple of the latest articles from Wired and while reading each one, it hits you, “Hey! Why couldn’t we do this article, too?”

… First, there’s the uber-simple election coverage — just pictures! This photographer captured New Yorkers standing in voting lines, thus capturing the resilient spirit of said voters. Here’s an idea, FREE OF CHARGE: Go out and take portraits of your school’s voters. Who are they? What do they look like? What motivated them to vote? Think “Humans of (Insert School Here),” except “Voters of (Your School).”

… Then there’s this national story about the internet-caused “homework gap” of students in America. Does your school have a large population of students living in rural areas? How’s their access to internet? Is it hindering their ability to learn and, sticking to theme, do their homework assignments? You may not realize it, but this may be the most consequential issue at your school. Not, you know, vaping.

Making deadline

When it comes to print deadlines and Election Night in the professional world, here’s the truth: It’s the one night a year news editors order pizza and pat themselves on the back for meeting their deadline. But guess what?

Sports editors do that every… single… night. And they don’t ask for Pizza Hut as a reward. But that’s besides the point. (Sorry! I had to get that off my chest.)

In a publishing world increasingly overtaken by design hubs, rather than local staffs, print deadlines keep getting earlier and earlier. And when you miss deadlines, you cost your publication money. So, on Election Night, very little concrete information shows up in the next morning’s newspaper, as Nieman Lab found out. Like a scan of Newseum’s top front pages of the day (and old past time), Nieman Lab found very little on the A1s of Wednesday editions. Some news outlets made a conscious decision to do this, to urge viewers to go online for it. (Yay for online!) Others did it because, well, they ran out of time.

According to front pages, voter turnout was amazing! But who knows who won their elections?

]]>The SNO Report: 5 things your site should havehttps://customers.snosites.com/the-sno-report-5-things-your-site-should-have/
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 16:57:56 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1726The days are so few between holiday breaks, which means you’re running out of time to actually accomplish the things you set out to, on your student news site this semester.

Whether you splurged and bought a site this year or simply committed yourself to recommitting to it, we sure hope you’ve been successful.

However, we also know how overwhelming it can be to get started — or restarted. It’s great to want your site to look like any of our Award Winners, to not be satisfied until it does, but those schools have been tinkering for years to get to where they are. It takes time, people!

We’re not going to magically send you there in one email, but we want to help you meet that New Year’s resolution. You wanted to actually make a difference in the appearance of your site. The best way to do that is by configuring a site design that’s functional. That doesn’t mean looking like any one of our Distinguished Sites necessarily. If you strip away their decoration, these are five things every functioning site has going for it…

Five fixes you can make before you begin Christmas shopping.

CUSTOM HEADER: Your site should have a brand — an identity. You do that with a color palette, often your school colors or black, white and gray. Those colors often come from your custom header image at the top of your site. You may call it a logo, banner or flag. Go away from the basic Text Header and design a custom header graphic — often done in Photoshop, working from a canvas that’s no bigger than about 200 pixels tall.

YOUR PILLARS: We’re talking about the categories (or sections) in which you’re publishing most. Those should be displayed on the homepage of your site using Category Display Widgets. You don’t need to go crazy having 20 categories out on your homepage. Do whatever your capable of. Displaying 3-5 categories is exactly as many as you need, and those are typically your bread and butter categories — News, Sports, Features, Opinions. Well, whatta ya know, there’s four right there!

SQUARENESS: The places you put all your widgets should ideally come to a pretty even (or squared) endpoint at the bottom of your homepage. You should create a homepage that, when sketched out as boxes, looks like a square made up of smaller squares or rectangles. It helps sometimes to sketch out a plan for your site, or to sketch out your site as it currently looks and diagram where you could move blocks or where you could add something else to create a squared homepage. It’s OK to act like you’re John Madden or something. An underrated issue to getting and sustaining the square: Using horizontal photos as often as possible.

How about a quick example? Let’s say you have those four main categories and a carousel for Top Stores, as we’ve discussed. Carousel goes in Home Top Wide, pick a category to align next to it in Home Top Right, and then put the remaining three across the page in Home Top Left, Center and Right.

Boom. Roasted.

INTERACTION: If it’s an extra block your missing to fill that last remaining blank space on the homepage, consider something that can be done online only. Maybe it’s a widget displaying a Twitter or Instagram feed. Maybe it’s a reader poll. Maybe it’s a video widget.

This list is just five things. There are 23 requirements total for the Site Excellence Badge, of the SNO Distinguished Sites program. That’s #goals. Start with these five and you’re site will be fully functional, so now you can focus your attention on publishing content.

Your site already checks off all five? Well, then, what are you even doing here! Get out there and publish more content.

]]>The SNO Report: It’s SNO Distinguished Sites Seasonhttps://customers.snosites.com/the-sno-report-its-sno-distinguished-sites-season/
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:41:17 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1722Your favorite time of year is back, the time of year when you can begin applying for our SNO Distinguished Sites badges.

Like Best of SNO, this year you’ll submit for badges on your own site dashboard, in the tab for SNO Badges. There, you’ll get started, track your progress, submit to Best of SNO, and receive notifications from our awards coordinator.

It’s easier than ever before to track the badges you’ve earned and what still needs improvement from the others you’re still working towards.

As is the case every year, each badge has a few minor adjustments to its requirements.

But there are a couple notable biggies.

Site Excellence Badge

Worded differently in the past, your homepage must be customized beyond the basics (i.e. the template you started with). Specifically, many of your homepages still use the dated technology of the Showcase Carousel, Teaser Bar A, Teaser Bar B, and Top Story Display Area.

To earn this badge, you’ll have to replace those features (found on your SNO Design Options page) with features available on the Widget Control Panel.

Multimedia Badge

It’s time you tried podcasting. To earn this badge, you’ll need three podcast episodes that meet all seven of our requirements. Those include episodes being interview-based, 5-15 minutes long, using music and including a structured intro and outro.

Those are two of the most significant changes to the game this season. Good luck!

Is it time to finally use the Breaking News Ticker? Add headlines to it throughout the day as you gather small tidbits of information.

Does all your coverage go in the widget for News? But is that underselling its importance?

It probably is, only because there’s so much you can do to showcase it by manipulating the layout of your homepage — for even just that single Tuesday in November.

Go create a Design Snapshot right now to save the current, everyday layout of your homepage, so you can quickly revert back to it after Election Day. Once you create that Snapshot, start plotting out the Breaking News “template” of your homepage for Tuesday. Sketch it out and take inspiration from other places. Designers at The New York Times have been thinking about their breaking news template for months — you can bet they’ll have a different-looking homepage, beyond the changes we did an entire podcast about, with them.

Consider, for example, the layout we’ve created on Best of SNO to showcase your midterm election coverage.

Here’s how we did it:

Having a number of versions of our header gave us the flexibility to flip from a white background to black one to emphasize the top section of the homepage where we were going to showcase your work. But maybe that’s not realistic for your publication — that’s OK, you can do everything else.

We created a brand new category, titled “Midterm Elections,” (call it whatever you want) to file all the content into. All that is being pulled into the SNO Story Carousel widget at the top.

The carousel is living in the Home Top Full Width widget area, which works really well for us because we don’t have any other widgets in that space, so suddenly having a wide, large space where content is displaying makes a major difference. But you might already have a large carousel or SNO Story Grid on your homepage, so…

Maybe you’ll change the displaying category in your top carousel or grid to “Midterm Elections” (again, call it whatever you want) for a day or two only.

Maybe you’ll use the Immersive Splash Page to showcase your one, big election story. Or maybe you’ll keep it so simple and display the stories from your new category in a Category Display Widget, but helping it to stand out by customize its widget styling.

The opportunities are almost endless and not just limited to Election Day.

Do this the week of the state championship football game.

Do this the week of Homecoming.

Do this over the holiday break.

Do this for graduation.

Do this when-ev-er.

We hope to see you guys mixing it up next week. There’s no bigger draw for increased readership than an event like this. Give those people something that makes a big impression.

]]>Midterm Election coverage and your next Assignment Desk: last month on Best of SNOhttps://customers.snosites.com/midterm-election-coverage-and-your-next-assignment-desk-last-month-on-best-of-sno/
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:39:15 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1717OK, we concede. You guys are good!

We asked you to get out there and cover your local elections. Your response? Overwhelming. You had it covered from all angles, so much so that we’ve re-published close to 30 stories so far and still have more to review — and more being sent in.

Thank you for the outstanding response to this first Assignment Desk prompt of the school year. You should be proud of yourselves. It was difficult to choose, but these are some of the best stories on the topic, written and submitted by students just like yours.

“While she was quickly jotting down questions on her phone, O’Rourke tried to get to know Mick by asking about her plans after high school. ‘He paid attention to what I had shared with him (and that made) me feel valued as a person.’”

“Zachary Price burst into Thunderbird Cafe, out of breath, in a crisply-ironed purple shirt and black blazer. The 20-year old had just come from a lecture, and to all observers he seemed like a normal college student.”

Rule No. 1: This is not a permission slip to put yourself or others in danger with irresponsible, on-the-ground reporting. Be smart.

Although this topic may give California schools a home-field advantage, other schools around the country should push themselves to find a local angle. When it comes to reporting on national stories, we preach localize, localize, localize at Best of SNO.

Dig into it. See what’s there. Good luck!

]]>Criticism, endorsements and the future: this week on Fresh Powderhttps://customers.snosites.com/criticism-endorsements-and-the-future-this-week-on-fresh-powder/
Fri, 19 Oct 2018 15:30:25 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1710But what if it’s bad?

Consider for a moment the significance of recent box-office hit Crazy Rich Asians, which manystudentjournalists are filing reviews of lately. Great, right? But is it actually any good? New York Times critic Wesley Morris wrote a thoughtful essay about how cultural criticism — that of art, television, movies — has worsened, in 2018, by becoming more about what the piece stands for, or it’s “moral correctness,” than its actual quality. As Morris argues, you can be happy that TV has a place for Insecure, whereas it likely wouldn’t have a decade ago, but that shouldn’t mean you can’t criticize it. Let your review writers and columnists read this one, going inside the mind of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Hits and misses

A man sits down in the Library of Congress and pilfers through every issue of Wired’s25-year history. Why? To see what predictions they’ve gotten right (like the cameraphone revolution), wrong (like sending smells through the internet), and not right or wrong — the ones that still seem to be on the horizon. Which reminds me: Where’s the flying car that makes icy Minnesota highways completely irrelevant? (Prayer hands emoji.)

]]>The SNO Report: Covering the midterm electionshttps://customers.snosites.com/the-sno-report-covering-the-midterm-elections/
Wed, 17 Oct 2018 15:52:04 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1708You can’t escape it. The political ads pouring into your poor mailbox and out of your television screen (here’s our favorite). The context applied to all news, or discussions of news, coming out of Washington, D.C. recently. The midterm elections are right around the corner.

Are you thinking about yours? How will you cover the midterms? How will you present the coverage?

On Best of SNO, we’ve already seen a ton of political coverage localized by student journalists. Three such articles covered the experiences of students working for political campaigns, which you can read here and here and also here.

Covering your local elections is especially important and it’s something you ought to be doing, since a subset of your readers are probably voting for the very first time.

That means covering it, first, at a bare-bones level:

How can your of-age readers vote? Or where can they register to vote?

What does a ballot look like? Or what else can you tell them about the Election Day process?

Who are the candidates?

What do the different political offices being pursued in the election actually do?

Where do candidates stand on the issues, especially those issues that matter to the age group of your readers?

What’s a Democrat? What’s a Republican? What’s it matter?

Why does voting matter?

Or for readers who aren’t of age, how can they still get involved?

How many of these questions have you answered for your readers? (Hint: The more the better.)

A lot of those answers can be found by researching the information. They’re mostly information-based reports, rather than relying on interviews. But what about interview opportunities? What about sending reporters to cover the events?

Here are a few stories about student journalists who went out and did it:

Start by covering school board and city council meetings. Go as a class and make it an assignment.

That’ll help you get even more prepared to cover politics leading up to, during and after these midterms. Think of it like covering your Homecoming Court election — you identify the candidates, share information about them with readers, you cover the big announcement, etc.

]]>Crazy Rich Asians, Homecoming elections and your first Assignment Desk prompt: last month on Best of SNOhttps://customers.snosites.com/crazy-rich-asians-homecoming-elections-and-your-first-assignment-desk-prompt-last-month-on-best-of-sno/
Wed, 17 Oct 2018 15:50:58 +0000https://customers.snosites.com/?p=1706Aw, shucks, you guys! You have overwhelmed us with your rampant participation in Best of SNO. And, boy, have you all been busy reporting already this fall.

From what we have gathered, every school in the country is under construction, all of them revamped their security procedures, and all of you saw the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

Sure, it’s not fair to lump everyone together like that, but how far off are we really?

Alas, we’ve had the privilege to recognize tons of terrific work so far, based on the unique news and people in your communities. These are some of the best stories of the past month or so, written and submitted by students just like yours.

“‘It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy, you look up to those girls,’ says Elliot, whose sister and mother were both on the court when they were in high school. Elliot, who wants to take part in this Herrin High School tradition, says he doesn’t feel as if he belongs with the escorts.”

“This point interests be because when I look around at my classmates, who are the same age as (and even younger than) Kavanaugh was when he allegedly committed those actions, I do not see kids. I see people who are eloquent, decisive and intelligent. I see people who have control over their thoughts and actions. I see people who have self-awareness and can decipher right from wrong.”

Perhaps this Assignment Desk topic is something to start planning for, instead of having something to submit right now; after all, the Midterms aren’t for another few weeks.

We don’t so much care for a list of your local, state or national candidates or your polling places — those stories won’t get re-published — but maybe you interviewed a candidate, talked to students who’ve interned with campaigns (we’ve re-published some of these already) or covered a campaign rally. What we’d also want to see is how you covered the day of the election, the voters’ experience, campaigns awaiting results on election night. It’s a good idea to cover the lead-up to the big day, too, how your community is preparing for it, voter registration drives… that kind of thing.

Prepare and publish them on your site. The submission process doesn’t change. We’ll be on the lookout for your political coverage! Here are some pro tips.